


Wakandan Sunset

by Nifflers_and_Crookshanks



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Break Up, F/M, One Shot, This pair are my life this physically pained me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 05:26:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14418630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nifflers_and_Crookshanks/pseuds/Nifflers_and_Crookshanks
Summary: Nakia hopes he will remember her fondly, and forgive the pain she has caused him.





	Wakandan Sunset

The sun is setting on the Golden City when Nakia of the River Tribe approaches the palace, shadows growing as colours danced languidly in the sky. There are tears in her eyes, but she wipes them away before she enters. She has a task to do, and she will not falter.

The hallways are uncompromising in their desolation, but Nakia is familiar with these walls - and she knows where he will be. When faced with most difficulties T’Challa consults his mother, consults her - he has even began asking Shuri for advice - but this is not any old issue. They have not talked in over a week, ignoring each other’s calls and messages, and Nakia knows her reclusive actions have given him much to think on, and he will be leaning on introspection, emerging himself in solitude.

“Nakia!” Shuri smiles, appearing from around a corner and guilt hits Nakia right in the gut.

“Hey,” Nakia replies, forcing a weak smile. It occurs to her that she is not just losing to T’Challa. She is losing half her life, all of the relationships she has formed as a part of him, especially his family. Queen Ramonda had welcomed her as a second daughter, and as an only child Nakia had delighted in the attention Shuri bestowed on her in a way that made her feel overtly protective of the young girl. Even the King had gone out of his way to welcome her as a part of their lives, and here she was, _in their home_ , betraying their trust.

“Are you here to see my brother?” She asks, and once again Nakia smiles.

“Yes I am, is he on the roof?”

“I’d think so,” Shuri says, following Nakia down the corridor. With a proud grin she continues, “Perhaps after you see him you can come down and I can show you two my newest invention?”

“That would be nice,” She says, before remembering what she is here for, “Next time, perhaps?”

“Next time,” Shuri agrees, happy with the promise Nakia knows she can not keep, before wandering off. At thirteen years old, Nakia regarded the princess as the closest thing she had to a sister, and here she was, abandoning her - but most of all abandoning her brother. 

T’Challa had many quiet places in the palace, but his preferred dusk haunt was one of the old roof gardens. It was next to forgotten, overgrown and in disrepair, but it was beautiful in a way that Nakia found enchanting. The clay soil was baked and cracked, but lush green flora emerged from them ground all the same and vines wound across the garden and bright flowers littered the place.

When she emerges into the small garden she already feels like an intruder. The walls are close together, intimate, and she is very aware that this is very much his place. Then she sees him, his silhouette in contrast to the brilliant sky of the Wakandan sunset, and her heart screams for her to leave, to turn back and never speak of her plans. She so desperately does not want to hurt him, but she wants to be free more - free to help those that need her. Her feelings for him, his feelings for her, they pale in comparison to this mission.

His head moves slightly to the side and Nakia knows he has heard her approach, and her time for thinking is over. As she walks closer to him she sees that he is sat at the edge of the garden, feet dangling over the edge.

“Hello my love,” He greets her as she takes a seat beside him, and he looks happy to see her as he always is.

“Hello,” Nakia almost falls into his smile, relaxes into it as she always does, but quickly reminds herself of what she has come to say and edges slightly away as she settles down. He watches her for a moment, and she knows he can sense there is something wrong. He knows her too well.

They had known each other since childhood, always walking the shadow of the other. They had learnt together, grown together, for so long that they were almost one person. He was in every part of her, the very fibre of her being murmured his name and his essence permeated her spirit. At the beginning of their relationship a small, dark corner of her mind had wondered who she would be without him, what kind of person she would become - a faint thought born out of sheer curiosity. Now, she will find out. She will have to.

He would change too. In her proximity to him she had watched him evolve from a young boy into a man, a prince, a warrior - the black panther. Perhaps without her he would become who he was meant to be. Panthers are solitary creatures, they hunt alone - T’Challa was destined for no different.

“What troubles you, Nakia?” T’Challa carefully asks, hand gliding how to caress her own. “It is about the meeting you had with Ntando, yes?” He says, and Nakia edges her hand away from his hold.

“Yes and no,” She responds, fingers gliding over the ground between them. The warmth of the African sun lingered in the stones, even as the muggy heat turned into cool night air. Nakia could feel the warmth at her fingertips and at the back of her legs, but it was no substitute for a human embrace.

“Are you leaving then?” There is pain in his eyes, Nakia can see it just as plain as the smile on his lips.

“Yes,” She says, and she thinks she sounds dead. She sounds cold and flat and without feeling. It is like she is removed from the entire situation, and devoid of any real emotion.

“And why did you hide this from me? I am happy for you, Nakia,” T’Challa is hurt by her distance more than anything else, hurt by how little she has confided in him. Every issue, every dilemma that he is unsure of he has consulted her, and yet she has not given him the same.

“Hide this from you?” She scoffs, eyes narrowing. “I have not hidden anything, T’Challa,” He is silent, staring out across the city to the setting sun. “I have been making a decision, and now I have made it.” Nakia says firmly.

“You made this decision alone, without telling me, without talking to me about it, there was no discussion, no-”

“It was not your choice to make, it was mine and mine alone!” She insists, though she is not quite so sure. They have been a pair for so long, a team, working together, think and acting as one. This decision was hers to make, yes, but it will affect both of them. He does not think it is his choice, he just wanted you to let him know, a small voice whispers. “T’Challa, do not pretend to be happy for me when you are not,” Nakia adds, her argument unsteady.

  
“I,” T’Challa pauses, “I am happy that you are happy. This is what you’ve always wanted, and I am glad you have achieved it.” He forces another smile, and he is not lying. There is no bitterness, no anger at her choice, he is proud of her and what she will do, but there is regret. “Where have you been posted?” He asks after a while.

“I have been given an assignment in Abuja,” She could see him stiffen at realising just how far away she would be. Most War Dogs would begin their posts in countries closer to home, like Kenya or Uganda, so that they could be monitored with greater ease and be withdrawn from the field if problems arose. “It’s not standard to place novices so far, but they thought I would manage given how I performed in training,”

“Nigeria,” T’Challa murmurs in disbelief. Nakia had been nervous, too, when she was first given the offer. Half a continent away and so different from everything she has ever known, but it was right, she could feel it in her bones that it was the right decision. There she can help those that need help the most. “It is not impossible,” He says after a while, “Distance will not lessen what I feel for you,” Nakia knows it to be true, she has seen it in his eyes everyday - but her new posting is not the only decision she has come to, and she is nothing if not resolved to her final judgement, regardless of the pain it causes her.

“T’Challa,” Nakia’s throat tightens as she fights to speak, “Once I am gone I am not coming back,”

The silence causes the entire garden to still. The clouds stop in their path across the sky and the sun seems to hang in the in-between of dusk for far longer than even a Wakandan sunset would normally allow.

“I am in love with you,” He murmurs, eyes fixed on the sky ahead.

What could she say? If she answered him it would do nothing to help, and yet her silence felt like a lie. Which was better? To pretend she was no longer in love with him, or to insist that her feelings were secondary to her cause? One was a lie and the other a cruel truth Nakia found heartless and undeniable at the same time.

“I have always been in love with you,”

 _I have always been in love with you_ , she almost echoes back.

Some people have stories of ‘when they knew’, romanticised versions of an otherwise mundane interaction somehow proving that they were soulmates. Aunties and uncles retold different stories, some humorous and others enchanting, when dinner was finished but the night was still young and even the elders would tell their grandchildren of the time they met their spouse and when they knew they were lovers fated to be together. Nakia has no such story. She has always loved him, there was not a time when she did not. The feelings perhaps had lain dormant in earlier years, but there was still the possibility that one day she might come to fall in love with him and surely that is in itself some form of love.

“I can not imagine a life without you, Nakia,” T’Challa breathes, voice fraught with emotion, and while Nakia is resisting her tears she sees that they have flown freely down his cheeks. “But I wish you all the best in your life and in your journeys,”

“Thank you,”

“I hope we meet again when we are both happier,” She desperately wants to tell him that she was happy, that it is not his fault that she no longer is, that when she had to choose between devoting herself to the world or to him she almost chose him. She does not tell him this.

Nakia hopes he will remember her fondly, and forgive the pain she has caused him. She trusts she will become just a memory after this, trusts she will walk on different paths to him and feelings will fade into shadows - but she would very much like to be a good memory.

* * *

 

They sat there at the edge of the garden for a long time. They watched the sun’s gold and red rays sink down below the earth and the pink and purple hues bleed together to create a smudged blue sky. They watched until the stars appeared, cold and bright and so very far away, and the last remnants of the day’s heat ebbed away. And then Nakia was walking away, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, and T’Challa was left alone with his thoughts once more.

**Author's Note:**

> I am overwhelmed by the response I have had for my fics so far, thank you all so much and please let me know what you think! Also, I am in one of the countries that has an early release for infinity war (April 25th) and so am extremely excited for that, and also completely emotionally unprepared. Anyway, thank you for reading :)


End file.
